Customer Reviews

Sucker Punch

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In the second of Ray Banks's Cal Innes novels (originally published under the title Donkey Punch in the UK in 2007), Cal is found to be an ex-con, former PI, pain pill addict, and chain smoker just freshly off parole. His doctor wants to wean him off the codeine he has formed a habit around, and the local hard boys are making life difficult for him and his boss Paulo at the Manchester gym where Cal works as a caretaker.
If all of that's not enough to contend with for one somewhat damaged fella, the assignment Paulo gives him could be the thing to put Cal all the way over the edge: he is to accompany Liam Wooley - a talented but unstable young fighter - on a trip to Los Angeles, where Liam will compete in a major tournament that could be the start of big things for his career. Liam is known for viciousness, both in and out of the ring, and Paulo wants Cal to make sure the kid stays out of trouble when he's not fighting, and that he acts like a boxer rather than a street-fighter when he's going at it in the ring.

Oh, and when they get to L.A. and start meeting people involved in the tournament, Cal quickly gathers that there is all kinds of crooked business at hand there. The shadiness around the tournament comes to a head when the father of the guy Liam is set up to fight in the championship match offers Cal a hefty bribe to cancel the bout.

Having the events of the book mostly set in America, Los Angeles no less, gives way to much of the biting humor and keen social observation that drives Sucker Punch. The throwaway food items, too-forward people, all the blond and tanned specimens on display in the California sun, etc, gives Cal and his sardonic wit much to reflect upon. In a scene which caused to me to laugh so hard I spit out part of the sandwich I was chewing on while reading, Cal encounters a chatty American at a bar he's gone to after taking in another round of Liam's sullen disposition:

American: You're British.
Cal: If you want.
American: I have a cousin in Birmingham.
Cal: Alabama?
American: England.
Cal: Right enough. I think I know him.
American: You do?
Cal: Yeah. Ugly lad, right? Won't let people drink in peace?

But the most intriguing culture clash occurs when Cal and Liam keep having edgy encounters with a group of spoiled L.A. brats who like to think of themselves as tough boys, one of this pack being the boxer Wooley is supposed to fight in the title bout of the tournament.

Too many contemporary crime writers working in the noir milieu have to work at making their characters and storylines appear authentic; and with too many of them, you can feel them hoping that someone will call them the "new Thompson" or "heir to Raymond," etc. Ray Banks, on the other hand, writes about the underworld in an easy and natural way, and he does it while being funny as hell.

Ray Banks' second Cal Innes novel, Sucker Punch, is my first. I expect though that it won't be my last.

Sucker Punch takes us along with ex-con, ex-PI, codeine-addicted Callum Innes as he travels from Manchester to Los Angeles as a "babysitter" for Liam Wooley, a young boxer entered into an amateur boxing tournament in California. Innes has no real experience in the world of amateur boxing (outside of his job as a helper in a local gym), and has never been to Los Angeles. Banks uses Cal's natural trepidation about the unknown brilliantly, and slowly cranks up tension as the story moves along without using hackneyed and cliched plot mechanisms. We have the sense something may be about to happen, but at the same time wonder if we, and Cal, are just being paranoid.

Sucker Punch has enough tough-guy (often hilarious) banter, bar fights, and gritty boxing scenes that many reviewers are calling it noir. From the outset though, Banks lets us know that Sucker Punch isn't going to be traditional for the genre; for one thing, there's no underlying mystery propelling the story. Instead, I kept turning pages well past the hour at which I should have been sleeping because I enjoyed spending time with Innes, who just feels more human and accessible to me than most characters in works considered noir. Though Cal's relationship with Wooley is always strained, in fact throughout most of the book Liam dislikes and disrespects Cal, Innes always puts his responsibility to the young boxer first; we get a good look at just what kind of a guy Cal Innes is, and he's immensely likable. Cal may be a tough guy on the outside, but Banks lets us see the worried, highly flawed, self-critical guy on the inside; a refreshing change from many characters in the genre.

Add to that Banks' unique and quirky style (ever hear a character claim something was making his teeth itch?) and his liberal use of British slang, and you end up with an incredibly enjoyable (and quick) read. From the opening scene in which Cal is having his final meeting with his parole officer, to the (slight) plot twist that occurs about 2/3 of the way through the book, to the final (perfect for the book) sentence, I loved Sucker Punch. Banks has written a book that never feels like it's trying to imitate works by the kings of noir, created one of my favorite characters in years, and done it all in his own unique and funny style. That's something few novels in recent memory can say.

HIGHLY recommended.

I really enjoyed Ray Banks' Sucker Punch. The characters are very well drawn and the world that they are set in is extremely compelling. I especially liked the lead character Cal Innes who is a tough as nails thug trying very hard to be good, but not quite finding his way. His internal conflicts drive the book. This adds a depth to a book that would otherwise been a pretty light thriller.

Sucker Punch is the second novel in the "Cal Innes Series". I didn't read Banks' first Innes novel Saturday's Child but didn't feel lost reading Sucker Punch which felt like a very self contained novel. I appreciate a writer who can write a series and make each book feel unique, all too often writer's in this genre write fractured stories with an eye to the greater series, Banks resists this temptation and delivers a solid and complete novel.

Sucker Punch is at its best when it's immersed in the world of amateur boxing, the closer to the ring this book gets the better it is. Unfortunately the book takes an extreme left turn about three quarters of the way through that really threw me. It's jarring and really derailed the momentum of the book. Banks' does ultimately pull it all together after that serious mis-step and it's not enough of a mis-step to prevent me from recommending this book, but it would have been a better book without it. The twist also arrests the natural story arch and results in a key conflict not getting the resolution it should have.

If you're a fan of boxing or enjoy the gritty world of sweat soaked gyms and tough guys Sucker Punch is definitely worth checking out.

A sucker punch as any guy who has been hit by one is a product of misdirection. "You look up when you should look down, left instead of right. Applied to the title of Ray Banks new mystery you are not even sure what the mystery may be until it slams you in the midsection and knocks the breath out you.

Cal Innes, lately out of the joint and needing work is sent to LA to babysit a young fighter with a lot of potential but more anger than technique. Liam has talent but Innes is poorly equipped to nurture it. what follows is a revealing glimpse at an underworld of amateur boxing few appreciate. the writing is tight and colorful, Innes ignorance is a jumping off point for a master class in boxing.

And the sucker punch is reserved for the biggest sucker of them all.

Sucker Punch by Ray Banks is a delightful surprise;the kind that you pick up, read, and cannot wait for more. This is the first book of his I have read, and the 2nd in a series featuring character Cal Innes. Do not let the fact that this is book #2 stop you from reading this first (though I look forward to reading the first, as well as more from this author).
He brings to the reader a fresh hard-boiled Noir as Cal,a person who trouble finds, teams up with a boxer as they leave England to head to a tournament in the U.S. (Los Angeles). There events take a turn leading Cal into trouble which makes for an exciting read!
If you are into good old hard boiled noir mysteries, but wish to get beyond the manufactured stuff, this is a tremendously fresh approach with a gritty, realistic character.

I like tough, gritty novels mixed with blue collar crime. For me, it's easier to understand the people involved and the crimes being committed. Sure, I enjoy the Agatha Christie puzzles and cozy mysteries as well, but my truest heart will forever belong to the Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler school of crime and hard knocks.

Evidently British author Ray Banks shares the same kind of love for tough stories. He's invented an ex-boxer, ex-convict hero named Callum Innes. SUCKER PUNCH is the second novel in the series to be published in the United States. You don't have to read the first book to enjoy this one, but there is a lot of history that the books share.

In this novel, Cal gets released from his probation officer. Cal is also saddled with a drug habit due to injuries suffered in the past. His employment opportunities are grim, but he's managed to hang onto a position at Paulo's gym where he sweeps floors and works out with young boxers. I was enthralled by this part of Cal's life. It's hard and honest work, and Cal takes it seriously.

He also takes his friendship with Paulo seriously, so when a criminal acquaintance of Cal's puts in an appearance at the gym to sell drugs and Paulo beats him down, Cal takes an immediate interest. Mo Tiernan isn't a man to trifle with, and Cal knows firsthand that Mo will seek revenge for his embarrassment and pain.

At the same time that he's trying to get the danger through Paulo's head, Paulo tells Cal he has a special job for him. Paulo has a rising young boxer named Liam that he set up for a tournament in Los Angeles. But, as readers quickly learn, Cal's jobs are never easy.

As it turns out, Liam is something of a headcase and has a criminal record himself. He used to mug old ladies before Paulo brought him into the gym and trained him to box. Paulo insists that Liam is one of the most naturally gifted boxers he's seen in his life, and he's backing his bid in the tournament with his life savings. Cal is supposed to keep control of Liam so he doesn't lose his temper and get disqualified.

No pressure.

Cal reluctantly accepts the assignment. He wants to stay and protect Paulo, whom he is certain is in trouble's path. Cal is also battling his codeine addiction, and his physician wants him get off the drug and check into a rehab center. With all the pressure on him now, Cal isn't ready to deal with this too.

I love the way Cal gets hammered no matter what he tries to do. Whatever he tries, you can bet it's going to go wrong. It doesn't even have to be his fault. Things are just never easy for him throughout the book. And I enjoyed that a lot. Heroes are more interesting when they're constantly dangling over one pit or another, and Cal dangles throughout.

The feel of a genuine Los Angeles landscape is definitely lacking in the book, but I was willing to overlook that because the action never let up. Liam and Cal don't get along, there's a good chance that the tournament is fixed, and one of the boxers has a powerful father who intends to see his son win the tournament.

Cal's job of babysitting Liam is one nightmare after another. The stakes raise, and the odds against Cal's success continue to mount. In addition to the crackerjack plotting, Banks delivers sparkling, sarcastic dialogue that I sometimes had to read out loud because I wanted to hear it. Some of the vernacular is hard to understand, though, but the author never fails to get his intent across.

I'm definitely going to pick up the first Cal Innes book and in patiently wait for more in the series. He's written some standalone novels as well, and I'll be looking out for those two. People who love nourish thrillers with tough guy heroes are going to enjoy Cal Innes and Ray Banks.

Cal Innes is a bad guy.

He's an excon who's violent, immature a drunk and addicted to prescription pain killers...he's also extremely entertaining.

"Sucker Punch", the lates Ray Banks novel featuring antihero Cal Innes is a quick and entertainng ride. Innes is a former cop and private investigator that walks the narrow edge between darkness and light; more than occasionally he falls into darkness. In "Sucker Punch" Innes is talked into taking a little vacation from his home in Manchester to the City of Angels... in return for airfare and living expenses, he is given the job of "babysitting" former bad-boy turned boxer. Liam (the young boxer) has been specially invited to attend a Smoker (boxing tournament) in LA, and it's Innes' Job to drive him to workouts and competition.

I enjoyed this novel very much and couldn't help but think that Cal Innes is dark doppelganger of Robert B. Parker's Spenser. While Parker's character is a tough guy with all the answers, Innes is a tough guy with all the wrong answers which makes for entertaining reading.

As a side note, it was interesting for me as an American reader to see the United States through the eyes of a writer from England. His insights are interesting and in many cases spot on.

If you like hard boiled detective novels with great first person characterization, you'll enjoy "Sucker Punch" By Ray Banks.

"Sucker Punch" is a real guys kind of book; gritty, bleak and very testosterone heavy. As such, it was not really my cup of tea, but I think a lot of people would enjoy it. If you like hard-boiled mysteries or noir fiction, you might like this example of what they called "Brit grit." Although most of the action takes place in Los Angeles in the amateur boxing world, Cal Innes is a Scot who lives in the Manchester, England area; he speaks (and thinks) with a lot of British slang

It would be helpful to read the author's first Cal Innes book before this one, because there are a lot of references to past events that aren't explained enough for the new reader. The book starts with Cal's last appointment with his probation officer but there isn't an explanation of why he was in prison or for how long. Cal is also addicted to pain pills (specifically codeine) as a result of an injury to his back, also not explained. There is also an early altercation with a guy named Mo Tiernan, with whom Cal has some unspecified history (I believe this is from "Saturday Night," the first Cal Innes novel).

Cal is a slightly difficult character to like. He isn't a bad guy but the closest he comes to having to a soft spot is more like raw, angry, open sores. He is intensely loyal to his employer and friend Paolo who owns a boxing club. Cal is the kind of guy who tries to do the right thing (at least how he sees it) but doesn't do a very good job of it, especially because his first inclination is to react with violence. Paolo sends him to Los Angeles with Liam, a young boxer Paolo thinks has enough promise to enter in a boxing competition. Liam is a sullen young man who doesn't think he needs a babysitter and Cal doesn't know much about boxing so there aren't a lot of laughs between them. Cal has a lot of time to kill and some of the people he meets end up landing Cal and Liam in trouble.

Cal's reactions to Los Angeles - particularly the differences from how things work in the UK - are interesting and often amusing, especially Cal's frustration with finding a place he can smoke.

Ex-con Callum Innes is back, and he still looks like crap, his life still inexorably circling down the drain. Done with his private eye gig, his excruciating back pain making him dependent on pain pills, and having royally bollocksed up his love life (in Saturday's Child (Cal Innes)), he does get a measure of good news in that he's finally signed off for the last time with his parole officer. Toiling away as a caretaker (read: janitor) at Paulo's grungy Manchester boxing gym, he gets talked into escorting (read: babysitting) a surly amateur boxer in his first major tournament, a smoker in sunny Los Angeles. Innes is loathe to depart, especially as Paulo is having problems with the local psychotic thug. And as ridiculously messed up as Callum Innes is, one wonders if good things are finally in the offing with this change of venue. Except in author Ray Banks' tough, gritty world, it doesn't pay to be too optimistic.

It almost seems unfair that Banks not only persists in kicking his protagonist to the curb, but now he also plants him in the city most known for shattering hearts and hopes. So Innes is a British wanker, and in California he's a fish-out-of-water wanker. When you factor in that La La land's pretty much banned smoking (and, soon, probably drinking and breathing), Innes's exposure to L.A. culture has a shaky start. Doesn't help that he can't quite get along with Liam, his young amateur hopeful. Liam used to be a thug and a bully but seems to have straightened out his life, and, really, he's well focused and has no time for a loser like Innes. Still, Innes does his best to look out for Liam, if by looking out means being boozy, grousy and negligent. Let's face it, Innes isn't that savvy in the boxing scene and he's simply horrible at striking friendships. Bloke favors being in the cups, in which state he's even likely to dismiss a good rogering for a chance to be rude to dames in bars.

SUCKER PUNCH is unpredictable, highly charged, and so well written. There's a good chance this book may leave you feeling a bit depressed and moody and maybe more cynical about things, but you'll also probably be marvelling at Bank's ability to put you in that place. In what at heart is a complex character study, Banks injects a dark mood, underscored by a rich, earthy vernacular. SUCKER PUNCH in the UK made the rounds as DONKEY PUNCH, of which title I think is more befitting of the grime and bleakness which saturate these pages. In its connotations, a donkey punch, which is code for a kinky and potentially dangerous sexual act, perfectly sums up Callum Innes's world of suck.

SUCKER PUNCH is a slow burn read. You do get caught up in the central character's personal baggage and in the boxing backdrop, so that it sort of slips your mind that this book is supposed to be a noirish crime drama. It just doesn't play out in conventional form. There's no mystery here; Innes doesn't piece clues together to solve anything. Someone dies, but it's not quite a murder. Even as Innes suspects corruptness in L.A.'s amateur boxing world, this element doesn't really crop up until the final third of the novel. Innes eventually does run afoul of underhanded shenanigans, passages in which Ray Banks does a nice job channeling Mickey Spillane. Banks, by the way, truly excels at describing hurtful violence. You're right there, witness to the pain and the bludgeoning, the blood spurting and the cartilage breaking. And to cap off the dirty, grimy tone of the book, Innes goes to Denny's.

Speaking of tone, Banks doesn't bother prettying up the City of Angels, preferring to explore its seamy underbelly. Plenty of film noir have taken place in L.A. before, and, off the top of my head, reading these pages brings to mind cinematic classics like Kiss Me Deadly, Double Indemnity (Universal Legacy Series), and Criss Cross (Universal Noir Collection). The author gets his hands dirty as he explores themes of disillusionment and broken dreams, moral ambiguity and that sense of alienation Innes feels as he navigates thru L.A.'s brand of weirdness.

Innes clings to this tattered code of honor, but remains stubbornly blind to his own flaws. He's self-centered and angry all the time, suffers from poor judgment and won't own up to his pill-popping addiction. Maybe someday, he gets his act together. Just not in this book. Callum Innes is a loser, and he's not even a lovable loser. And, yet, Ray Banks keeps me reading about the guy.

A number of Vine reviewers like this book and its British low life,I'll knock your block orf matey, street argot. I'm a transplanted Brit and like the Ian Rankin books of this type, films like Sexy Beast and Jason Statham in Snatch. Its a rich tradition of hard nutcases with a slang all their own. Alas, this book for me is just flat and lifeless -- limp overcooked broccoli. The plot is minimal, the characters barely defined, and its narration, presented through a mixture of terse speech and personal viewpoint, pallid. There's barely a single descriptive paragraph that establishes people or place -- much of the book is set in LA, for example, but you really would not deduce this from random samples of the prose. The characters are "characters" in the Brit sense but they are almost puppetry as more than the words they say and those words limp along, flaccid and flat.
Skip this book and seek out Bob Hoskins in Long Good Friday, Michael Caine in Mona Lisa or Stathanm and crew in Snatch -- these films embody the ethos and atmosphere this book presumably aims at but they are as full of life and texture as this is lacking. To repeat Dorothy Parker's (I think it was she) review of Hepburn as running the gamit of emotions from A to B, this runs the range of literature from A to, well, A.